This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to tell the story of the arrival and maturation of the idea that Himachal has a religion of its own. The core narrative—which traces ...
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This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to tell the story of the arrival and maturation of the idea that Himachal has a religion of its own. The core narrative—which traces how Himachalis recognized their own beliefs and practices as religious—is energized with stories of the author's own struggle to understand the lived worlds of contemporary Himachal people, which narrate his own process of relating to religion. In bringing his own voice to the text, he hopes to invite the reader to imagine religion not as an object, as an identity one wears like a set of clothes, or even as something that can even be embraced or rejected but rather as an intimate, dynamic process that has no end. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less

What Is This Thing Called Religion?

Mark Elmore

Published in print: 2016-07-05

This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to tell the story of the arrival and maturation of the idea that Himachal has a religion of its own. The core narrative—which traces how Himachalis recognized their own beliefs and practices as religious—is energized with stories of the author's own struggle to understand the lived worlds of contemporary Himachal people, which narrate his own process of relating to religion. In bringing his own voice to the text, he hopes to invite the reader to imagine religion not as an object, as an identity one wears like a set of clothes, or even as something that can even be embraced or rejected but rather as an intimate, dynamic process that has no end. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.

Religion is often viewed as a universally ancient element of the human inheritance, but in the Western Himalayas the community of Himachal Pradesh discovered its religion only after India became an ...
More

Religion is often viewed as a universally ancient element of the human inheritance, but in the Western Himalayas the community of Himachal Pradesh discovered its religion only after India became an independent secular state. Based on extensive ethnographic and archival work, this book tells the story of this discovery and how it transformed a community's relations to its past and to its members, as well as to those outside the community. And, as the book demonstrates, Himachali religion offers a unique opportunity to reimagine relations between religion and secularity. The book shows that modern secularity is not so much the eradication of religion as the very condition for its development. Showing us that to become a modern, ethical subject is to become religious, this book creatively augments our understanding of both religion and modernity.Less

Becoming Religious in a Secular Age

Mark Elmore

Published in print: 2016-07-05

Religion is often viewed as a universally ancient element of the human inheritance, but in the Western Himalayas the community of Himachal Pradesh discovered its religion only after India became an independent secular state. Based on extensive ethnographic and archival work, this book tells the story of this discovery and how it transformed a community's relations to its past and to its members, as well as to those outside the community. And, as the book demonstrates, Himachali religion offers a unique opportunity to reimagine relations between religion and secularity. The book shows that modern secularity is not so much the eradication of religion as the very condition for its development. Showing us that to become a modern, ethical subject is to become religious, this book creatively augments our understanding of both religion and modernity.